Valeri Garcia of Sacramento’s North Natomas Little League and Ron Campbell of San Francisco Little League are among the 20 national winners of Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double-Goal Coach® Award for their positive impact on youth athletes.

The award – named for coaches who strive to win while pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports – carries a $250 prize, a trophy and mention within Positive Coaching Alliance’s website, newsletters and media.

“Valeri and Ron help their players win on and off the field,” said Jim Thompson, founder and CEO of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and author of eight books on youth sports, including The Power of Double-Goal Coaching. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience, and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, both Valeri and Ron help youth develop into better athletes and better people.”

Garcia, a Program Advisor at UC Davis’s Student Academic Success Center, has known since about age eight that she wanted to coach. “I really love the holistic development sports can provide,” she said. “Almost every job interview I’ve ever been part of, the topic of sports comes up. I want to give that back to kids, and not just the actual sport itself, but what sports can do.”

At UC Davis, Garcia conducts workshops based on Mindset, the book by Stanford University Psychology Professor and PCA National Advisory Board Member Carol Dweck, which emphasizes individual growth through effort, rather than reliance upon talent. “That focuses me as a coach on making sure my practices are about development and learning,” Garcia said. “If you praise athletes’ effort, they’re going to want to try harder.”

For Campbell’s part, the key to his teams’ winning is keeping players and parents happy by focusing on fun and giving players chances to try different positions. These techniques help temper the pressures of competition. “Sometimes I hear from parents, ‘Why do we have to be so competitive?’ or ‘My son is really not a competitive person,’ and I say, ‘Well, you know, there is competition in pretty much every facet of life and a kid needs to know how to handle being in a competitive environment.’

“The funny thing is kids absolutely eat it up. They love competing. I’m not an over-the-top competitive person, but I want kids to compete. I want them to be in tough situations, and I want them to be able to handle it. I teach them that from day one. Competition is a good thing; it’s fun.”